1. Field of the Invention
In connection with the monitoring of changes of various conditions and the occurrence of specific events at a particular area at which equipment or apparatus operates it is common to use commercial pulse counters, such as the Durant counter, to accumulate pulses from flow integrators, magnetic pickups (used to count revolutions of rotating devices), pulse-generating timers, event sequencers, etc. The field of the invention is the system of transferring information from pulse counters to a computer that is located at another area, usually a substantial distance from the area in which the counters are located.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been the practice to use one counter register device for each pulse source located at a particular area. Each of these counter register devices is generally a multidecade counter. When interfaced to a computer, each counter register device requires n computer address channels (n = number of decades) for communication of BCD information from the counter register device to the computer. Because one area will have many individual counter register devices, the number of address channels between that area and the computer will be very substantial. For example, when there are ten four-decade counter register devices at the area, forty address channels are required. This requires substantial interface wiring. When additional counter register devices are added to the area for counting pulses representing other information it is necessary to further increase the computer interface wiring between the computer and the area at which the counter devices are located. This results in the substantial cost of installing wires between the area of the counter devices and the computer that will be in another area. That other area may be located a substantial distance from the counter devices.